When and where, in your opinion, did the green building movement begin in the United States?
The green building movement began to be taken seriously during the first oil crisis in the 1970’s when we began to get a glimpse of limited supplies. If you look at Europe, their green movement preceded ours, also due to the recognition of limited supplies, in this case wood. Because, in our case, the initial limited supply was oil which equates to energy, our green movement focused quickly on free solar energy, Because there was more new development occurring in the sunny western states, and perhaps because the western U.S. is less rooted in tradition, the green building movement grew in this fertile environment.
What inspired you to start Green Building Pages?
As an architect focusing on sustainable design, one of the main difficulties I encountered was finding the appropriate information about products in order to be able to make an appropriate choice. In the early 1990’s, there were a few products with recycled content, but often they were either not available or too costly. The time it took to track down a green product and substantiating information was tremendous and often simply impossible. (This was a few years before the web.) In discussions with fellow architects, all agreed that they would definitely specify green materials if it were not so difficult and time-consuming to locate and learn about them. So I set out to gather that information for us all.
How is the site useful for architects and builders?
Green Building Pages is the only public resource for building materials that has current, complete, concise, and transparent information in all areas of product life from input materials and energy, output materials of manufacturing, installation, use and maintenance to end of product life. It also is the only resource that addresses the equally important issues of social responsibility. In addition to being the most comprehensive informational resource about green building products, there are many search and linking capabilities that greatly assist architects and builders in making informed decisions and finding local materials such as LEED credit searches, searches for locally produced products based on project zip code, as well as searches by green attributes, product type, etc. We have also recently established link functionality between products, case studies and project professionals to broaden the discussion and information available regarding the use of products.
How has visitor traffic to the site grown over the years?
Every year since 2003, our website traffic has increased significantly. Over the last year, however, our traffic has nearly doubled. Most recently, between February 8 and March 4th of this year, we have had more than 38,000 hits with 20,273 published product profile pages viewed by 393 users. This averages about 51 product profile pages per user indicating that the level and transparency of information is extremely valuable to industry professionals as well as to the general consumer.
What is the single most important step that someone who lives in, say, a 20-year-old house can do to make his or her home more "green" without starting over?
Incremental steps would be to conserve energy by replacing old appliances (HVAC, refrigerator, water heaters especially) with Energy Star rated appliances, replace light fixtures with energy efficient lamps, dimmable fixtures, increase insulation in walls, under the floor, and most important, in the roof.
More extensive steps would be to make the building envelope more energy efficient by replacing leaky windows with new energy efficient windows. If replacing exterior finish, be sure to include a breathable vapor barrier under new finish. Finally, choosing a exterior finish material that is durable, maintenance free with low impact, environmentally friendly materials, such as fiber cement siding rather than wood siding, unless using FSC wood. However, the maintenance issues with wood exterior finishes are still a significant issue. Replacing the exterior of an older home certainly is a significant step but one which offers the greatest visual impact and perhaps the largest green impact in terms of use of materials.
Any other economical, practical steps you could recommend?
For all interior spaces, choose materials such as paint, carpeting and cabinets carefully to avoid harmful off-gassing that has been shown to have a number of significant negative impacts on human health. There are a growing number of interior finishes that are made from natural, environmentally friendly materials that do not contain glues, binders or other materials that off-gas volatile organic compounds (VOC’s).
A new survey of builders conducted by NAHB revealed that new homebuyers are willing to pay a premium for a greener home. In your own experience, do you find this is the case?
Absolutely, particularly when there is a pay back time frame within 3-5 years which is certainly becoming more the norm as a greater number of green products come to market. My experience recently has also been that homeowners are definitely becoming more aware of the connection between health and productivity and healthy interior building materials. This relationship is not so quantifiable in terms of pay back periods, but is definitely much more significant as a cost issue as well as health.
Please describe the typical clientele of your architecture firm, Habitat Studio:
Our clients typically are coming to us because they want healthy, environmentally and socially responsible design. They are usually very well informed in many areas and have researched products on the web even before they come through our doors. They typically like to be closely involved in the design process, know more about the individual ‘parts’ than in previous years, and seem to appreciate professional guidance in creating a comprehensive whole out of these individual pieces.
Do you encounter resistance these days from builders regarding green techniques, or is it the opposite?
The only resistance from builders centers on the availability of products and the continually rising costs that are difficult to nail down. The builders we have had the good fortune to work closely with are extremely foresighted, innovative and like the challenge and the reward of going the extra mile for their clients in terms of using new products.
How would you answer skeptics who dismiss global warming as a myth, or green building as a fad?
I would suggest that anyone dismissing global warming today is not observing the writing all over the walls. Start with the weather patterns, the bottled water that has replaced use of tap water for drinking, the lack of available resources, the diminishing food supplies, the state of our oceans and rivers, the diminishing number of species, the dislocation of growing numbers of people, the global issues and disputes over use of available resources, all of which can be traced back to our growing populations and the incredible stress we are placing on the environmental systems that have supported all species, including us.
To get an idea of our individual impact or ‘footprint’ based on our individual lifestyle, one needs only to go to www.footprintnetwork.org/gfn_sub.php?content=myfootprint and answer a few questions to realize what we are talking about here.
What is the most exciting green product discovery you've made in the last 12 months?
I would have to say that I am particularly enamored with two flooring products. Recycled, and recyclable flooring tiles now come in incredible combinations of pattern and colors. Individual tiles can be replaced, rather than the entire flooring, and several companies have take-back programs whereby they will have the carpet tiles shipped back so that they can refurbish or reclaim them for reuse.
The other flooring material that has recently become mainstream is bamboo. It is also used in cabinets and shelving among other things. Bamboo is a grass and is a rapidly renewable thus reducing the demand for diminishing wood supplies. Many manufacturers are offering low or no-VOC bamboo products as well.
A completely new product, Trim Tech, although it is hidden from view, is exciting in that it can be used to create interior or exterior moldings without the use of foam, making it environmentally preferable and a much healthier option for interior use.
What advice would you offer to homebuilders regarding their next project?
I would urge homebuilders to spend much more time upfront designing to the context of the specific site and environmental conditions. Orientation of the building to admit sun in the winter and omit it in the hot summer allows all else to flow. If this is not right, the design is an uphill battle with increased costs of design, of construction and most importantly, increased costs over the lifetime of use.
For more information, please visit: http://www.greenbuildingpages.com
